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"This is a decades-long siege of Gaza, 50-year occupation and 70-year exile, and the only time Palestinians matter is when they're being killed or appearing as a threat to Israel.”

Since Palestinians in Gaza launched the Great Return March on March 30, Israel has killed at least 109 Palestinian protesters and wounded 12,300 others, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Instead of probing the Israeli government and its U.S. backers about this mass atrocity, American media outlets are far-too-often implying that Palestinian protesters are responsible for their own deaths—falsely portraying the massacre, in which zero Israelis have died, as “clashes,” and painting Palestinian protesters as pawns of Hamas, rather than legitimate civil society activists.

Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American human rights attorney, activist and assistant professor at George Mason University, tells In These Times that widespread dehumanization in the U.S. media stems from the fact that “we don't turn our gaze to Palestinians unless there’s something happening to Israelis or in regard to U.S. relations. Palestinians appear as shadows. This is a decades-long siege of Gaza, 50-year occupation and 70-year exile, and the only time Palestinians matter is when they're being killed or appearing as a threat to Israel.”

Erakat is in a position to know. Amid the constant stream of misinformation, she was featured on CBS on May 14 to give the “Palestinian” reaction to the ongoing protests in Gaza and the Trump administration’s inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. During the interview, Erakat was hit with nearly every trope about the conflict currently circulating in the U.S. media—and she crushed them on by one:

“They had me on their program and literally asked me about Hamas amid civil mass protests. On March 30 when at least 14 Palestinians were gunned down, Israel explicitly said it would not investigate itself nor allow for an international probe, meaning that they defend their lethal use of force. Six weeks later, when they escalated, the questions should be about Israel’s violation of international law. The fact that they asked me about Hamas shows that they are either willfully misleading their audience, or they just aren't doing the work. Both are horribly irresponsible.”

Tens of thousands of protesters in Gaza are calling for an end to Israel’s military siege, which has led to severe gas and water shortages, as well as economic devastation, for the roughly 2 million people living in the strip. Demonstrators are also demanding the right to return to the land Israel evicted them from 70 years ago during the mass-expulsion known to Palestinians as the “Nakba,” or catastrophe.

Amid these protests, Erakat says, American journalists are missing critical opportunities to ask hard questions. “Journalists should be asking Israel, ‘Do you think Palestinians are a people with the right to exist and to self-determination?' They should be asking Israel, ‘What is the problem with allowing Palestinian refugees to return?’ They should be asking U.S. senators why they are not enforcing the Arms Export Control Act, [which conditions arms exports on human rights standards].”

Instead, U.S. press coverage of these protests is so dismal that, according to Erakat, “By the time they bring me on, I'm having to serve as a corrective.”

The only thing stupid around here, is israel's open act of genocide of the people of Palestine, and racist like you who think it's ok.

Posted by Linann M Singh on 2018-05-17 15:28:16

Wow... racist much? Hamas is not the same as the people of Gaza. Saying that is like saying all Americans are Trump or all Americans are Obama. Way to be concerned about unarmed people in street clothes being shot by well trained and equipped snipers. But it's cool because Darwin or something.

Furthermore, as the article and video state multiple times, THERE IS NO BORDER. Israel has never officially declared a border between them and the Palestinian areas or where it might lie. So they're being shot for approaching a fence.

Even if there WAS a border, that's not how borders work. If Mexican soldiers started shooting ranchers in Texas who live along the border, would you be cool with that? Would anybody?

Posted by Stephen Price on 2018-05-16 14:10:50

Noura Erakat shuts down corporate media lies so well!

Posted by YoungAmerican on 2018-05-16 09:40:44

Viva Jerusalem, the capitol of Palestine!

Posted by YoungAmerican on 2018-05-16 09:35:01

BOYCOTT DIVEST & SANCTION!

Posted by YoungAmerican on 2018-05-16 09:33:17

The constant orders by Hamas for Gazans to approach the Border ironically actually are helping Israel against Hamas because those stupid Gazans who choose to approach the Border are injured or killed and, therefore, are eliminated, not only as a possible present threat to Israel, but also eliminated as a possible future threat to Israel. Because they will continue to be eliminated as a present and future threat for as long as the protests continue, the continuation of the protests by Hamas will continue to help Israel reduce future threats since Hamas is slaughtering the ranks of its own alleged "army" by its pathetic protests. Israel does not have to check papers or computer information to determine the present and future threat potential of those Gazans who approach the Border. Israel only has to see which suicidal idiots approach the Border to know their present and future threat potential.

The breathtaking stupidity of Hamas may be appreciated by how very well Hamas actually assists Israel in the destruction of Hamas by its own protests. Israel has a simple four word rule: "approach Border - get shot." Anyone who stupidly chooses to approach the Border also stupidly chooses, by that stupid act, to be shot: cause = effect; stupid is as stupid does.

Stupid is as stupid does, and stupid is Hamas and Gaza for a dozen reasons: (1) actually creating for Israel this Darwinian "Natural Selection" of the elimination of present and future Gazan terrorists by Hamas ordering the "Natural Selection" of where Gazans should walk, which enables Israel to eliminate them as future threats; (2) not one Israeli soldier has sustained even one small, shallow paper cut as a result of the protests; (3) in contrast, over 100 deaths and thousands of injuries to Gazans; (4) those few protesters who actually penetrate the Border (and always only a few meters) are either shot or caught or both, which completely destroys Hamas' alleged great "March of Return" as it truly is a “March of Turn Around” in Gaza; (5) the protests have not changed the daily lives of Gazans in any way whatsoever; (6) the protests had no effect on the May 14 opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem; (7) the protests will have no effect on the already announced openings of the Guatemala and Paraguay Embassies in Jerusalem; (8) the protests will have no effect on many other future Embassies in Jerusalem; (9) the protests had no effect on the lives of the people of Israel; (10) the protests attest to the completely destructive governance of Gaza by Hamas since it took power in 2006; (11) the protest corroborate the utterly failed policies and promises of Hamas to Gazans since Hamas was established in 1986; and (12) the protests prove the terrible stupidity of the people of Gaza to follow Hamas.